Defsounds

“I don’t know where that [report] came from and neither does Def Jam,” Nas told MTV early Thursday morning (October 18) in a Manhattan recording studio when asked about a Fox News article published earlier this week.

According to MTV, the story quoted a “source close to” label head L.A. Reid, who scoffed at the thought of the company supporting an album with such a title, and also claimed the album was not on the label’s release schedule. “None of us knows where that came from.”

[People] shouldn’t trip off the [album’s] title; the songs are crazier than the title. Said Nas.

“I’m a street disciple,” Nas continued. “I’m talking to the streets. Stay out of our business. You ain’t got no business worrying about what the word ‘nigger’ is or acting like you know what my album is about without talking to me. Whether you in the NAACP or you Jesse Jackson. I respect all of them … I just want them to know: Never fall victim to Fox. Never fall victim to the shit they do. What they do is try to hurry up and get you on the phone and try to get you to talk about something you might not know about yet.

“If Cornell West was making an album called Nigger, they would know he’s got something intellectual to say,” Nas retorted. “To think I’m gonna say something that’s not intellectual is calling me a nigger, and to be called a nigger by Jesse Jackson and the NAACP is counterproductive, counter-revolutionary.”

Nas also tells MTV he was upset with everyones negative reaction without knowing the story behind him choosing the name.

“I wanna make the word easy on muthafuckas’ ears,” he explained. “You see how white boys ain’t mad at ‘cracker’ ‘cause it don’t have the same [sting] as ‘nigger’? I want ‘nigger’ to have less meaning [than] ‘cracker.’ With all the bullshit that’s going on in the world, racism is at its peak. I wanna do the shit that’s not being done. I wanna be the artist who ain’t out. I wanna make the music I wanna hear.

“We’re taking power from the word,” he added. “No disrespect to none of them who were part of the civil-rights movement, but some of my niggas in the streets don’t know who Medgar Evers was. I love Medgar Evers, but some of the niggas in the streets don’t know Medgar Evers, they know who Nas is. And to my older people who don’t now who Nas is and who don’t know what a street disciple is, stay outta this muthafuckin’ conversation. We’ll talk to you when we’re ready. Right now, we’re on a whole new movement. We’re taking power from that word.”

The Album, which Nas originally stated was to be a radio friendly version of Hip Hop Is Dead, will now be focused around ideas and feelings he wanted to express for years.

“Every time I get in the studio, I feel like I wanna have some fun,” he said. “My fun is not doing the easy work. My fun is doing what’s me. [Radio-friendly songs], that’s easy work. My daughter could do that. My daughter could do the sh—that’s out. I wanna do me and hopefully some muthafuckas would like it. At this point, I’m looking at the whole world differently. I’m looking at how politics could really be effective for people today, how me as an artist could be more effective. ... I listen to the radio sometime and I like the vibe of that. I go to a club, and my favorite shit is Soulja Boy [‘Crank That’]. I wanna get down with them joints, but … [my records] do not come out like that.”

“This Nigger album is bigger than an album. This is for my daughter, when she looks back and sees all the chump niggas in the game, she’ll say, ‘My pops was a man.’ When I have more kids, they’ll see, ‘He was a man.’ That will inspire them to be real in their life. Some people say I’m conscious, some say I’m a gangsta rapper — it’s just me doing me. I’m stomping in my own lane. I’m doing what I do.”